One of the most unlikely harbingers of the computer age was a Christian mystic. After getting his ass kicked by Muslim scholars, he thought up a device that would let him win any argument, answer any question, and convert all people to the one true faith.

Newton was even more ahead of his time than we imagined. Not only did he come up with the laws of motion, he also came up with the concept of sockpuppets centuries before the beginning of the internet.